The Chetboard

We lost Jerry Reed 10 years ago on 9-1-08

We'll be saying "Hey" to him this Wednesday in Nashville! http://ofgc.net/images/Promos/reedceleb ... 9b.php.jpg

I know at this point it is probably a stupid three questions to ask but:
1. Did Jerry's main guitar, a nylon stringed neo classical have a two inch wide neck?
2. Were his hands big enough to form choke chords using is thumb over at least the low E string on a two inch neck?
3. Did he only use barre chords on his nylon string guitar?

Just wondered. I can't form choke chords on my classical type guitar but I still like using it because i make less unintentional semi muted strings or buzzing notes. Thanks in advance.

Rich Irvine CGA - Certified Guitar Amateur

I have a very hard time forming choke chords on a classical neck, which is what I happen to play. Sure would be nice, though!! Would open up a whole new world to me.

Took some classical lessons from a classical teacher back in the 80's. Man, if that thumb peeked over the top of the neck, out came the ruler!!

Sure do miss the Alabama wildman, though. He was one of a kind!!!

rhirvine wrote:I know at this point it is probably a stupid three questions to ask but:
1. Did Jerry's main guitar, a nylon stringed neo classical have a two inch wide neck?
2. Were his hands big enough to form choke chords using is thumb over at least the low E string on a two inch neck?
3. Did he only use barre chords on his nylon string guitar?

Just wondered. I can't form choke chords on my classical type guitar but I still like using it because i make less unintentional semi muted strings or buzzing notes. Thanks in advance.

Rich Irvine CGA - Certified Guitar Amateur

Hi Rich, try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge:

1. Jerry used a Baldwin 801CP from 1967 as his main guitar pretty much his entire career. This guitar had indeed a 2 inch nut width. Jerry liked these short scale classical guitars with clubby necks. Prior to the Baldwin, he used a Gibson C-1E which also had a 2 inch nut (he recorded Nashville Underground on this guitar). Throughout the years he used various classical guitars, but not all had thick necks. The Ovation 1624-4 Country Artist he used on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour had a 1-7/8 nut width and the Guild Mark III he had, had a 1-15/16 nut width. In the late 90's and 00's he used a Godin Multiac a lot, that one has a 1-7/8 nut width and a neck that joins the body at the 16th fret..

2. Don't know if Jerry had big hands, but judging on the numerous of videos I watched of him, I think he had fairly large hands. Look at a random video of Jerry playing, and you will see he used both barre chords and thumbing the low E-string. The performance of Alabama Jubilee on Pop Goes the Country, played on his chopped Baldwin 801CP, he barres the F-chord, but is thumbing the G- and D-chords.



3. I think I already answered this question. Jerry came up with a lot 'impossible' riffs that required a lot of stretching. Also based on that, I think he had pretty big hands.

Hope this helps.

I'm sure it an't so, but every time I see that straight cut-off on his guitar, I imagine Jerry just saying "The hell with it!" And taking it in his shop and just SAWING IT OFF! And I mean just hacking through it with a table saw or something.

Doug Working wrote:I'm sure it an't so, but every time I see that straight cut-off on his guitar, I imagine Jerry just saying "The hell with it!" And taking it in his shop and just SAWING IT OFF! And I mean just hacking through it with a table saw or something.

Gene Martin did the chopjob on Jerry's Baldwin. Gene was the brother of Benny Martin, the famous bluegrass fiddler. Gene has worked for Sho-Bud and Grammer Guitar. Besides his craftmanship he also was a good guitar player and even recorded an LP in '63, called Country & Western Confidential (A Backstage Expose).

Jerry himself said the following about the cutaway (from an old Reed website):

Neither Paul Yandell nor Ray Butts had anything to do with the old Baldwin Cutaway. Benny Martin’s brother, Gene, cut it out for me so I could get down the neck. But Paul has setup just about every guitar I’ve played, and there’s none better. If you want to know how it plays now, you’ll have to ask Paul: because I gave it to him. I do use a Ray Butts pickup in my Fender.

Paul Yandell once mentioned the following on this board:

Gene Martin Benny Martin's brother did that he worked at Sho-Bud, Jerry had another classic made by someone in St Louis that was cut like that and I think that's where the idea came from, thanks paul

In a video recorded during CAAS 2006, Craig Dobbins briefly talks about the cutaway when actually playing Jerry's Baldwin. He said the following:

And if you noticed, it has a real chopjob on this side. I forgot the name of the guy, but it was a man who worked at a shop in Nashville. I hope he is not in the audience right now or else I'm in real big trouble. But Jerry said "I want a cutaway". He (Gene) said "Well 'bout where do you want it?". "Well 'bout here (makes a vertical gesture)". So that's what he did.

Thanks Hendrick. That really did answer all my questions. Also I never had seen that performance before. It was dazzling. I didn't know Jerry Reed could play such fast single notes in addition to his vast harmonic skills and just plain doing things his unique way. Guys like that don't come along very often. And what a showman he was. Wish he was still with us.

Not to mention his amazing imagination for tunes, as we were treated to by the amazing variety of tunes he wrote that Chet personally recorded.

Every time I listen to a Jerry tune, and kind of even more so when Chet picks 'em, I just have to stand back in wonder at his originality and astounding imagination, and think to myself, there will never be another one like him. God broke the mold. He really, really did.

As for the cutaway, I was pretty sure it wasn't Jerry's doing, but it's not hard to imagine him with a saw doing that, because Jerry never had time for messin' around. He just did things his way.

Rich, you'll have to listen to Jerry's "Lightning Rod" or "Nervous Breakdown". There are plenty of high speed single notes!